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Private equity house buys PHS

The office services company PHS Group was mopped up for Â£600m (â‚¬875m) in cash on Thursday by the private equity firm that brought it to the stock market four years ago.

Charterhouse Capital Partners is buying the 40-year-old business, which owns PHS Washrooms and Greenleaf office plant services, for the equivalent of 116.36p a share under the agreed deal - 115p in cash and a 1.36p dividend.

Charterhouse beat off a number of other bidders in an auction organised by the investment bank Merrill Lynch in May, after the company admitted that it had received approaches.

PHS appointed Merrill Lynch to conduct an auction process which flushed out a number of potential bidders, understood to include both private equity firms and trade buyers. Charterhouse, whose Â£600.4m bid was the highest, did not make the first approach that kicked off the auction process.

Competition for PHS Group was said to be stiff, with JP Morgan Partners, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the US venture capital group, and BC Partners all understood to have expressed interest in the hand-dryers to pot plants company.

Institutions holding 21.7% of the shares have given irrevocable undertakings to accept the deal, which will be undertaken through a scheme of arrangement. Shareholders holding a further 10.5% of the shares have stated that they intend to vote in favour of Charterhouse's proposal.